Category Archives: Restaurant blog

Auntie Pesto’s Café, Salt Spring Island

Yesterday, while Trevor was here for a few days, we went to Salt Spring Island. Driving to Chemainus and seeing the scenery was pretty nice and then we continued on to the Ferry at Crofton.

On the other side at Vesuvius Bay, we drove a few kilometers to the center of town and wait for the Farmer’s market to open. We walked a bit and then decided to have some lunch. We spotted Auntie Pesto’s Café and were seated outside on the patio over looking all the different boats being moored there.

Trevor ordered “The Mateo” – a sandwich made with genoa and calabrese salami, provolone cheese, and sundried tomato tapenade on their in-house ciabatta bread; toasted to perfection and he ate it all up.

Don ordered the lox and dill cream cheese platter with pickled shallots, fried capers, shaved pickled zucchini and slices of toasted in-house made brown bread. Yup, he ate it as well.

I ordered the Grilled Chicken Panini with roasted red peppers, and provolone on their in-house made ciabatta bread. Believe me, this bread is absolutely awesome. These sandwiches were so large, I could not eat the whole thing. THEN, they ordered Onion rings.

If you are fortunate enough to travel to Salt Spring Island, be sure to go in and eat here. It is clean, the food is great and the staff are so friendly.

I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you a tale of woe (for me but funny for everyone else). Lunch was my treat for these two wonderful men and I always tip 20 per cent. I put in the numbers and handed the machine back and the lady looked at it and asked what she had done so wrong. I had put in 20 cents, not the 20 percent. We rectified it, thanks to Don and Trevor thought this was pretty funny. Me? I was totally embarrassed.

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The Keg, Nanaimo, B.C.

Anyone who has ever read my reviews, knows I have always raved about The Keg….until now. We moved here 8 months ago and have been there about 5 times. Each time I order the one and only steak I would ever eat and that is what they call ‘the baseball’ steak. Fine. Every time I tell them how I want it cooked, they run away, bring the Manager back so he/she can tell me “we don’t cook it that way”.

I have never asked for a steak to be well done EVER, but when I am the  one paying the bill, what business is it to a cook if I even wanted chocolate sprinkles on it? I don’t but that is what it amounts to. If the Keg wants to buy my meal, then they should be able to tell me that I can’t have it the way I would normally  eat it. They come to me still having a heart beat when you cut into it.

Never mind, last night was the real kicker.

I got a promo telling me about the Lobster specials they have now and not lasting a long time, so I decided to treat Don out. I ordered the Lobster Gratinee and Don ordered the scallops wrapped in bacon. For the entrée, we ordered what they called “to share”. It is 3 yorkies like you have never had.

The lobster gratinee was beyond swimming in butter. Once you removed a slightly over-cooked piece of lobster, there would have been a teaspoon of butter sitting in the small hole of the dish. Times that by 6. Then came the yorkie with a warning. “The yorkie is not warmed up and more bread-like than the normal yorkie”. Okay. When it did come out, it was almost cold to the touch and the gravy/sauce they used one would use in a chicken pot pie not to disguise the delicate flavours of the lobster.

Carrots, celery, chicken stock,  this didn’t go well.  We asked the server to please bring us one that is at least hot.  When it came out, it was hot but still tasted like chicken pot pie.

Sorry guys, when you get a new cook, please let us know and we will come back but not now.

 

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